I often try not to follow the lives of actors because too often we find out that their morals might be skewed or they're just in it for the money and care nothing about the fans. When I got the pleasure of talking with Sam Witwer, I was pleasantly surprised to meet a normal guy who plays more video games than I do who is just a huge sci-fi nerd!
If you're a fan of Star Wars, then you probably recognize Sam's voice in
Forced Unleashed as well as
Star Wars: Clone Wars, the animated series on Cartoon Network. Witwer was already a fan, but he became an even bigger fan after working with franchise.
"I kind of lost my mind even more so for the whole Star Wars thing."
As a collector of geek memorabilia myself, I had to ask Sam about his own private stash of goodies.
"My office is this glorious geek cave. There's interesting things to look at everywhere." Helmets, prints, light sabers, The Enterprise replicas, and so on. Sam's got it! "I'm doing well. I'm being competitive!"
He also teased about some of the work he's doing on
Clone Wars. During our conversation, he told me that he was about to play a man that is essentially "the dark side of the force" on a planet that's like the vision cave that Yoda sent Luke to in
Empire Strikes Back.
Season 8 of
Smallville was very good to me. Even though the Doomsday fight was anti-climatic to a majority of the fans, I enjoyed the buildup and Davis Bloome. I asked Witwer what was it like working on the show.
"Everyone was really, really nice. If you're a fan of that show, I can tell you the people you're fans of are extremely nice people. They're fun. It was cool." When I asked him if he drew any of his inspiration for current role of Aidan from his experience on
Smallville, he noted how they were similar, but also pointed out the differences.
"The Davis thing...I would liken that more to some sort of rage thing, almost like Josh's werewolf thing, because Aidan-no matter what version of Aidan we see-he's always himself."
Sam Witwer is currently the star of
Being Human, a supernatural drama on the SyFy channel about a vampire, ghost, and werewolf rooming together while trying to find their place in the world. Witwer acknowledged that he was skeptical at first, but admits that he would have made one of the biggest mistakes of his career if he had skipped out on his audition.
"It would have been horribly tragic." He admitted to not seeing
True Blood or
Twilight, but believes
Being Human is unique. There are a lot of vampires out there, but I can attest that
Being Human has a very different take on the supernatural.
Last Monday marked the first season finale of the U.S. version of
Being Human and closed the book on the Bishop chapter, but opened the door to a bigger mystery about a female of higher position wanting to meet with Aidan. Witwer hinted that he knew who "she" was, but didn't seem to know what was next for Aidan and the crew, but spoke about the writers being insanely busy getting ready for season 2.
After learning how much of a nerd Sam Witwer actually was, I had to ask him who was his favorite super hero. His answer was Batman, which is a popular answer, but with specific details when giving an example of why he loved him in
Arkham Asylum.
"I loved the fact that you never got a good look at the guy. He was always just this terrifying dark shape and you never ever got a good look at him and I loved that. You should be frightened."
Witwer also sent a shout out to his fans, thanking them for their support.
"The wonderful thing about sci-fi fans is that they're about fifteen times more loyal than your normal fan." And in return, I have to say that I really appreciate the fact that Sam Witwer is a fan himself. It's exciting to see someone who loves what they're doing.
Here's the full interview:
www.thegorgeousgeeks.com